What do you think?

At a special board meeting on March 1, 2015 the Board of Directors of Human Agenda unanimously approved the creation of its first employee-based program, the Cooperatives Incubation Program (CIP) and its first legal collective, CLARO. The acronym CLARO in Spanish signifies Colectivo Legal Accesible Razonable y Organizado, the Legal Collective that is Accessible, Reasonable, and Organized.

The purpose of CLARO is to provide accessible, high-quality, low-cost legal services to undocumented immigrants who qualify for a 3-year work permit and protection from deportation under the November 20, 2014 executive order of President Obama for the parents of a son or daughter legally in the United States. Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) is available to those who show continuous residence in the United States since Jan. 1, 2010 and who are deserving of this protection due to the lack of serious criminal or immigration violations.

Over one million immigrants will become eligible in California, and approximately 53,000 in Santa Clara County once DAPA takes effect on May 20, 2015. Human Agenda attorney and executive director Richard Hobbs states: “Despite the temporary setback by a Texas judge who granted an injunction on February 17 blocking DAPA and amplified DACA, we fully expect the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse the judge and allow this program to proceed. In 2012 DACA was challenged in court and lost; we fully expect this effort by the Republican Party to undermine the dignity of immigrants to fail also.” DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Accountability, has been granted to over 600,000 young people since August 15, 2012 and the expansion of DACA, also announced by President Obama last November 20, will also proceed, stated Attorney Hobbs.

The first workshops held by Human Agenda were conducted the week of March 2 with dozens of participants who want to be fully prepared for DAPA and also be aware of other legal remedies. The workshops are led by attorneys Hobbs, Isabel Soto, and Andres Guerra.

“Human Agenda is taking a critical and significant initiative to change the rules of how legal services are delivered. The goal is to incubate CLARO and, within a year, create a law cooperative with its own legal status”, said Cesar Juarez, the President of the Board of Human Agenda. “By creating the Cooperatives Incubation Program, the Board of Directors of Human Agenda is putting two deep commitments of the organization into action. First, Human Agenda is living its DECKS values of creating cooperatives that are Democratic, Egalitarian, Cooperative, Kind, and Sustainable. Second, by offering high quality low-fee evening and Saturday legal services it is showing its commitment to the low-income undocumented immigrant community, the most marginalized sector of U.S. society.”

To sign up for a DAPA workshop call the CLARO hotline at 408-661-1587.

Human Agenda

The mission of Human Agenda is to envision a world where the human needs of all can be met, engage the community in forging local institutions that are democratic, cooperative, egalitarian, sustainable, and kind, and take individual responsibility to embody the change we’d like to see.